Chain Reaction of Scandal

Money scandal in Shinzo Abe Cabinet seems to be tirelessly sprawling. Following the doubt on political donation to Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Koya Nishikawa, two other Ministers rose up as suspicious to have received illegal money. It was a half year ago when some Ministers left Abe Cabinet due to money scandal. How many Ministers around Abe are involved in dirty money? Is this Cabinet clean enough to handle national politics?

One additional scandal is related to Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Hakubun Shimomura, who is one of the closest political allies of Abe. According to the reports, Shimomura has supporters’ groups related to education business that are not registered as political organization. Those groups are said to have been donating money to an official organization of Shimomura as annual fee, which has not accordingly be reported to the government as political donation.

In the discussion of Budget Committee in House of Representatives, Shimomura explained that those groups were not political organizations. The receipts of annual fees were issued from his political organization. Shimomura admitted it as inappropriate. One of the groups in Chubu area had close relationship with yakuza organization. Shimomura told that he returned the money to the Chubu group after he realized the relationship. However, it is amazing that an education business group, which has connection with Ministry of Education, has been involved in such anti-social crime organization as yakuza.

Minister of Environment, Yoshio Mochizuki, followed Nishikawa and Shimomura on Friday. Asahi Shimbun reported that Mochizuki had received money from a distribution company that received subsidy from the government. The company accepted ¥42 million from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in March 2013 and ¥170 million from Ministry of Environment in August same year. Mochizuki received political donation from the company within a year from receiving of subsidy, which Political Funds Control Law prohibited. The structure of scandal is the same as that of Nishikawa who stepped down as Minister earlier this week.

Those scandals showed that Liberal Democratic Party was still dependent on money from private companies that were not big enough to manage the business independent from political power. Close relationship with small or mid-size business is the most important lifeline for LDP. That is why Abe administration keeps on producing scandalous Ministers.